Steep climb and heat, test cyclists at Amgen

PALM SPRINGS  Some of the world’s finest professional cyclists were pushed to the limits Monday at the second stage of the Amgen Tour of California.

Starting at Murrieta’s Town Square Park, the riders had ridden 122.3 miles and endured scorching temperatures as high as 108 degrees, but the most daunting stretch of road had yet to be raced.

The last 3.8-mile stretch included a sudden 1,880-foot climb in elevation up Tramway Road to the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway which carries tourists up the rocky face of Mount San Jacinto.

The imposing ascent and the blistering heat took its toll on the participants.

“The last climb almost felt like it was in slow motion because it was so hot,” said Ireland’s Peter Deignan, the third-place finisher who led the stage heading into the final climb.

Italy’s Marco Pinotti, of BMC Racing, completed the race, but complained of dizziness at the finish and was transported to a hospital. Pieter Serry, the Belgian, stopped 500 meters short of the finish line and was also left the event via ambulance.

It was Columbia’s Janier Alexis Acevedo Calle that had the least trouble with the incline, moving ahead of the field to win the stage with a remarkable surge in the final 600 meters. The climber from the Jamis-Hagens Berman race team claimed the prestigious yellow jersey as the race’s leader following two stages.

“I knew I had to attack at that moment,” said Acevedo Calle through a translator. “I waited for the moment where I felt where was the strongest and that’s when I decided to attack.”

“It was the hottest race I have ever done for sure,“ van Garderen, a Montana native.

Slovakian Peter Sagan, perhaps the event’s biggest star, finished in 102nd, 19 minutes and 48 seconds back of the leader. Sagan won a record five stages of last year’s Amgen Tour and claimed the sprint points jersey at the Tour de France in 2012. Stage-one leader Lieuwe Westra, who was still leading the race while it traversed through the streets of Palm Desert, finished in 37th.

“Everyone has to deal with (the heat),” said American Lawson Craddock of Bontragger. “It was a brutally cold winter and spring for everyone over in Europe. With all the racing have done in the cold weather, nobody has really acclimated to the heat. Everyone has to deal it with it all the same. It’s just like altitude. You climb up at 8,000 feet, some people do better, some people do worst…It’s one of the things that makes this the hardest sport in the world.”

Only a few weeks ago, Van Garderen said riders were bracing snowy and rainy conditions with 30-to-40 degree temperatures in Europe.

After the start in Murrieta, the race headed northeast to Menifee, where it traveled east on Scott Road. The course took a southern detour through Temecula Valley wine country before heading back north to Hemet. Eventually, the riders reached Hwy. 74, the famed Pines-to-Palms Highway that rose to approximately 4,900-foot elevation at two separate points. After a 4,300 foot decline, the course tread into Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and Cathedral City before ending on the slope of Mt. San Jacinto.

At 126.1 miles, stage two is the longest stage of the Tour of California. Stage three resumes Tuesday, beginning in Palmdale and ending in Santa Clarita. The final and eighth stage concludes in Santa Rosa Sunday.